"You had best be quick then," said the old woman. Horrid old woman! I began to esteem her less. I set my teeth, and was about to rush on, when a voice close beside me said-- "Stay, young man; I will let you through the gate." I turned round sharply, and saw close by my side, in great wonder that I had not seen him before, a man, whose homely (but not working) dress seemed to intimate his station as that of the head-gardener, of whom my guide had spoken. He was seated on a stone under a chestnut-tree, with an ugly cur at his feet, who snarled at me as I turned. "Thank you, my man!" said I joyfully. "I confess frankly that I was very much afraid of that leap." "Ho! Yet you said what can be done once can be done twice." "I did not say it _could_ be done, but _ought_ to be done." "Humph! that's better put." Here the man rose--the dog came and smelt my legs; and then, as if satisfied with my respectability, wagged the stump of his tail. I looked across the waterfall for the old woman, and, to my surprise, saw her hobbling back as fast as she could. "Ah!" I said I laughing, "the poor old thing is afraid you'll tell her master--for you're the head-gardener, I suppose? But I'm the only person to blame. Pray say that, if you mention the circumstance at all;" and I drew out half-a-crown, which I proffered to my new conductor. He put back the money with a low "Humph!--not amiss." Then, in a louder voice, "No occasion to bribe me, young man; I saw it all." "I fear your master is rather hard to the poor Hogtons' old servants." "Is he? Oh! humph--my master. Mr Trevanion you mean?" "Yes." "Well, I dare say people say so. This is the way," and he led me down a little glen away from the fall. Every body must have observed, that after he has incurred or escaped a great danger, his spirits rise wonderfully--he is in a state of pleasing excitement. So it was with me. I talked to the gardener _à cœur ouvert_, as the French say: and I did not observe that his short monosyllables in rejoinder all served to draw out my little history--my journey, its destination; my schooling under Dr Herman, and my father's great book. I was only made somewhat suddenly aware of the familiarity that had sprung up between us, when, just as, having performed a circuitous meander, we regained the stream and stood before an iron gate, set in an arch of rock-work, my companion said simply--"And your name, young gentleman? What's your name?" I hesitated a moment; but having heard that such communications were usually made by the visitors of show places, I answered--"Oh! a very venerable one, if your master is what they call a bibliomaniac--Caxton." "Caxton!" cried the gardener with some vivacity. "There is a Cumberland family of that name--" "That's mine; and my Uncle Roland is the head of that family." "And you are the son of Augustine Caxton?" "I am; you have heard of my dear father, then?"